StantonHyde

I have perused a couple of guide books and have developed a rough draft of a 2 week Scotland Itinerary. The family includes me and DH and 2 teens--17 and 15 by the time of our trip. We are looking at doing this trip possibly the last week of June/first week of July in 2020. We could move it to earlier in June, but would rather not go in July/August at the peak of season. Things we like: we are BIG history nerds. Love museums and castles. House/garden tours not so much---e.g. look at the lovely Chippendale furniture. We like hiking. We will do a few whisky stops, but not many. No shopping. Seriously. We do.not.shop. Love getting things in the museum gift shops but that's about it. Will look for some woolens possibly. Also, we are pathetic at wandering. People will say--oh wander through this town/neighborhood and it will be amazing. Nope, Never is. Seriously, we are missing some gene. So we basically do our wandering/taking in the city/town by walking from museum to museum. We tend to GO from 9am-5pm, then we retreat to our lodgings and CRASH. So not too worried about night life. At this point, I will probably look at airbnb for lodging. We are a tall family--DD is the shortest at 5'6"--and those long legs need room. I have been looking at hotels and there is just no way 2 of us are fitting in a double bed--or I should say getting any actual sleep. And we like having a kitchen to eat in if we want. (and snacks. gads, do teenagers eat snacks!!)

I need to know if I have allotted too little time for this trip. We have 11 whole days of just sight seeing. (not counting the 3 travel days it will take us to get there and back) What adjustments would you make given our family makeup/interests? For the record--my husband does have experience driving on the right side of the road. We survived a week in Dublin and the surrounding counties without excess swearing and nobody cried or died. (success!!)

We are using FF miles through Delta so it looks like we will fly to Heathrow and then to Edinburgh. We will get there on a Sunday.
My big question of the trip--Holyrood Week!!! We must see Holyrood. Must. I see that the Queen is there from approximately the last Friday in June through the first week of July. Does that mean they close Holyrood for the entire week before she arrives? Or--do you think we could visit on Monday when she will be getting there Friday? If we can't, we'll just have to 2 days in Edinburgh in the beginning and save a third day for the end. sigh....

Here we go:
Day 1, Monday: Edinburgh Castle, Gladstone Land, Writers Museum, St. Giles Cathedral
Day 2, Tuesday: The Real Mary King's Close, John Knox House, Museum of Edinburgh, Holyrood House (could move this whole day to Monday, see note above), National Museum of Scotland
Day 3: Wednesdaycottish National Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, either Cadenheads Whisky or Whisky Rooms Shop, IJ Mellis (sp?) Cheese Monger--we may have to get there earlier but this is the day we would have time. Also maybe Analogue Books and/or Cranachan and Crowd.
Day 4: Thursday: Drive to Stirling Castle and Bannockburn Heritage Center, then drive to Perth and overnight. (overnight in Perth or Sirling???) (I have us skipping St. Andrew, because, honestly, it doesn't have history museums or other things like that. Golf is not an interest.)
Day 5: Friday: Drive to Moot Hill, Blair Castle, drive to Inverness (stops along the way or are there just over looks that are marked and we can jump to see the views?) I see it would take us approximately 3.5 hours driving to Inverness from Perth??? (have to add in the scheduled stops and then the overlook stops too)
Day 6: Saturday: (I am not sure we can do this all in one day--how could I possibly combine this with Day 7??) Culloden Moor 9:00-11:30, grab lunch there, 1:00-2:30 Cawdor Castle; 3:30-5:30 Fort George
Day 7: Sunday: Still in Inverness. Cairn Gorn Mountain Railway, possible hiking in Cairn Gorn Park, Glenfarclass Distillery, Glen Grant Distillery. Can we do that in a day? Maybe reverse the loop so we hike last? We picked those distilleries because they are not Glenlivit or Glenfiddich. We want a smaller distillery. Can you do a tasting without a tour? We only need to tour one facility? We will split one tasting between DH and I and will try to take one sip per sample. The idea is to buy whisky that we can enjoy in the evening, not drink in the afternoon and then get arrested!!! I guess we will pack a lunch for this day.
Day 8: Monday: Drive from Inverness to Oban. Stop at: Loch Ness Center and Exhibition (because we just have to ....), Glencoe Visitors Center, Hiking in Glencoe--maybe Glencoe Lochan or Signal Rock ??? Stay in Oban this night.
Day 9: Tuesday: I need help here. Rick Steves describes a tour of Mull, Iona, and Staffa that includes the ferry to Mull, a bus ride across the island, a ferry to Staffa (an hour to see the puffins), then a ferry to Iona (2 hours to see the abbey there), then back to Mull, take the bus across, and the ferry back to Oban. That's a lot in one day. There also seem to be a number of naturalist boat tour type rides. We would really love to do a lower key naturalist type thing. But we also want to see Iona. (we went to Dublin 2 years ago and say the Book of Kells, so Iona would be a cool connection) We will stay in Oban this night and will park our car there.
Days 10 and 11: We need to end up in Edinburgh the evening of Day 11. We'll stay the night at an airport hotel.
So--we could add another day onto Oban/the Islands. We could add on to other parts of our trip. We could go to Inveraray and Kilmartin Glen and other standing stones near there. (we really loved NewGrange in Ireland). I think we want to stay small vs. going to Glasgow. We could spend one or 2 days in the border towns seeing abbeys and castles on our way back to Edinburgh. What would you advise?

Thanks for reading this long post!!!! Yes, I know I am planning wayyyyy in advance--I always do! I appreciate any ideas you have. Thanks!!!!

Jean

I'll be curious to see how the Scotland experts react (hello, Janisj!). We travel more slowly than your itinerary would allow and spent hours at the castles you mentioned. Blair in particular is just stuffed with artifacts. Stirling is big, and I recommend seeing the Church of the Holy Rude nearby. Most of your driving days would be at the outer limits of what I would consider for even one day, let alone multiple excursions.

I probably wouldn't tour two distilleries unless you're very interested in the subtle differences in whisky making. You can do tastings in Inverness if you want some variety. Not far from Glen Grant Distillery is the Speyside Cooperage which offers an interesting tour on barrel making and repairing.

I think the Cairngorm Mountain Railway went bust last year.

hetismij2

How tall is tall? 5'6"isn't tall. That's me and I am the shortest by a long way in my family, yet everyone manages to sleep in a normal bed in the UK when they visit. I doubt an AirBnB will have bigger beds than most good hotels do.

You only need one whisky distillery tour. If one of you is driving you can take your samples with you to enjoy later. We did that this year at Glenturret as I don't drink whisky. Glenturret used to supply Famous Grouse with single malt for blending but is now owned by the Lalique company, and is selling it's own single malt as that It is a small, tradional disitillery not like some of the big Diageo owned places. The tour was very good and the guide excellent. https://theglenturret.com/

janisj

StantonHyde

Thanks for the info so far.
1. Good to know that Fort George is that big. I am allotting 2-3 hours per castle. Should I allot 4-5? I think we spent 3 in the Tower of London, for example.
2. The driving distances are not an issue for us--we live in Utah, it takes us 4-6 hours to drive anywhere. From what I see, the 4 hours from Perth to Inverness is the longest drive we have. So not a problem for us.
3. Good info on the whisky touring. We were not interested in the tour so much as getting a chance to taste at the actual distillery and then buy some to take back with us. Like wine tasting. But it sounds like the idea is to do one tour just to see how it is done in Scotland--which will be fun. And then you taste in a town and can buy bottles there? This assumes that the shops carry whisky from all of the local providers. (I am clueless on this, having never tasted whisky in Scotland!)
4. For beds--the solution is we rent an airbnb with 4 beds, or if we get lucky, one king sized and 2 twins. So that's why we go that route. I think its a combo of tall people/long limbs and restless sleepers. Nobody wants to sleep with me because I toss like a rotisserie chicken The hotels I looked at all advertised double beds--not even queen size beds. My daughter would mutiny if she had to share a double with me
5. Great advice on Oban/Mull. I knew there had to be days added to that area. It looks too amazing to just dash through it. I will look more at individual sites there. Thanks! Where would you stay/base yourself?
6. Interesting on Inverness--why not stay there and what village would you recommend and why. Fortunately, the kids aren't foodies like we are, so we are ok eating pub grub or basic food stuffs. (oh, but I am so looking forward to eating fresh seafood!!) So staying in a smaller place with basic dining options is fine for us.
7. I think we might need 3 days in Inverness and then 2-3 full days in Oban and that does it for the 11 days. That would be fine with me. I am happier with a few days in each location.

I look forward to more ideas--thanks so much. This board never disappoints!

jane1144

As an aside. there is a shop . called Romanes and Paterson on Princes Street in Edinburgh. When I first went in, I thought it was another shop selling tartan and shortbread. It is, but if you go to the back, they have quite a collection of Malt whisky and a knowledgeable person who can advise you on a purchase. We always go there to buy something that we can't get at home (Canada). They will spend time with you to determine what flavour profile you prefer and then recommend two or three which you can sample before you buy.

StantonHyde

Thanks Jane--we are definitely planning on hitting at least one whisky shop in Edinburgh. I am sure we will need a nightly dram during our travels

historytraveler

palatino82

If you like history and castles, I would highly recommend a stop at Castle Stalker in between Inverness and Oban, just south of Ballachulisch (which is right next to Glen Coe). It is a little tricky, since it's privately owned, you get there by taking a little boat, and there is only one tour a day I think. But it was a highlight of our trip. We also ate dinner at the Olde Inn right by where you take the boat. We also had two great hikes in that area - the Pap of Glencoe which is a bit strenuous and is a half day hike, and Steall Falls which is in Glen Nevis. The park was beautiful and is very close to Ft William. Definitely make sure you have rain gear!